After continual problems with my front hatch seals, which led to considerable leakage, I have changed the seal. A trip to Home Depot turned up some split pipe insulation which slips nicely over the original seal of the front hatch opening. The pipe insulation has a 5/8 inch (1.6 cm) diameter grove. Wall thickness is .5 inch (1.27 cm). The pictures show the insulation.

This picture shows the insulation fit over the original hatch seal. The ends of the insulation were then glued together (Superglue, I believe.) The clamps are to hold the ends until the glue takes hold. The split tubing also has adhesive on the surface of the split. Leave the protective strip on the adhesive until after fitting the insulation seal over the original Hobie seal and until after the ends of the seal area glued. Then, simply lift up the edge of the seal, grasp the protective strip and pull it out while pressing the adhesive side to the flange of the Hobie seal. This sounds more complicated than it is. It takes a few seconds to remove the strip and glue the new seal to the flange. This adhesive fixes the split surface to the flange of the original Hobie seal. Very convenient.

The finished seal:

The hatch cover fits snuggly over the new seal.

I think this new seal is going to effectively prevent leakage through the front hatch. I costs about 7 US$ and is easy to apply. I don’t know about the resiliency of the seal—will it recover after being pressed firmly by the hatch cover for an extended period. Also, I don’t know about its durability--it tears easily. Time and a few trips will tell.

Very interesting idea! Also looking forward to the follow up.For sure this kind of sealing will compensate for a bad cut of hatch cover and hatch opening. I am now (we have winter season with lots of ice) struggling in my garage with the missfit between cover and hull opening on my 2012 AI. Slowly, step by step, taking away material and getting a better fit. Major problem are two:1, As I take away material, the mountings of the sealings come closer to each other.2, Very delicate to make two sealing surfaces to seal at same time.

Possible weak points in your idea: Will the adhesive hold for salt water?

Certainly looks like it should work Keith. I don't seem to have a problem with mine. Dunno why. Luck of the draw I suppose. Virtually nothing getting in. And I reckon the small amount that does, is coming from the rear hatch 'O' ring not sealing. Please keep us posted.

Keith I completely agree with NOHUHU that your new seal will disintegrate very quickly. I wouldn't even use it temporarily.

Coincidentally I took my front hatch to tackle shack in Pinellas Park, Fl with a seal that was falling apart. I wanted to hear what their take was on fixing these as they move a lot of AI's and are pretty innovative.

They cut me a piece of new seal which is beautiful. You install it with no adhesives whatsoever. First you must remove the old seal and the black piece under the seal. This new seal presses on directly to the hatch. It's going to be a nice tight fit with a solid seal.

Sure can't argue with either of you fellows (CaptChaos, NOHUHU), but, I'm going to give it a try. It is certainly delicate stuff, but I know that, so I'm going to treat it carefully. As far as adhesive, it is contact adhesive , but not in contact mode--simply one contact surface sealing to original Hobie seal surface. I used marine glue where I glued the ends together. One of my points here is that Hobie needs to make a more robust seal for the front hatch.

Jim, I have replaced the hatch cover seal, just as you show in your picture. My recent problems have to do with the hatch-opening seal. I did not have a leak problem until my hatch-opening seal came loose. I re-glued it. My re-glued hatch-opening seal looks good, but my front hatch began to leak seriously on our recent camping trips. If you think about it, when your front hatch leaks, it is both seals that must be leaking.

If I don't give my insulation seal a try, I would always be wondering if it might have worked.

One of my points here is that Hobie needs to make a more robust seal for the front hatch.

I more suspect a misfit cut of both hatch cover and hatch opening in hull.

Chekika wrote:

I did not have a leak problem until my hatch-opening seal came loose. I re-glued it. My re-glued hatch-opening seal looks good, but my front hatch began to leak seriously on our recent camping trips. If you think about it, when your front hatch leaks, it is both seals that must be leaking.

What you are saying is in fact that your hatch-cover seal was leaking from the beginning, and still is. Also that your hatch-opening seal was the only watertight seal from the beginning. But when you re-glued the seal, it did not came in same position as the one Hobie factory mounted. If you pressed the seal down properly until it stopped (as I think you should do), maybe it followed the wrongly, to deep cut (longsides) in the hull. I claim that Hobie did not glued the seal in line with the cut in the hull. But you did. Therefore it now leaks. (Sorry for my bad english but I hope you got what I meant)

Oh yes, this is just a theory! But I have my own problems with front hatch leaking and my thinking is somewhat orientated around what I see on my own hatch cover and hatch opening.

NOHUHU--I have the new molded seal on the hatch cover. The hatch opening is the original glued seal. The new molded seal has a very light bubble and relatively small diameter. Why doesn't Hobie double the diameter and stiffen the bubble material??

Kal-P-Dal--Sounds like a good theory.

This thread has given me a new idea. I might never test my new insulation seal--I do think it is the right size and will seal the hatch, but durability will be a problem.

Keith

PS I'm one of apparently millions of AT&T customers without U-verse service (no internet, no home phone.) I'm setting in front of an AT&T office doing my work.

We use a larger bulb on the (much) larger and flexible PA hatches. I believe it is still a glued variety though. We, as noted changed the orientation of the seal on the hull to match the lid version, so same seal is now used on both. If you have an older Adventure hull that has the "side" glued type seal... there is no new replacement option, but... you could cut the flange off to match / update to the current orientation. I'd imagine that is not a simple task though.

These are not Hobie designed seals. They are off the shelf supplies from Trim-Lok. They have tons of options, but only seem to sell in 200' boxes.

Matt, thanks for your participation in this thread. What would help would be a picture of a cross-cut view of all of Hobie's hatch seals, side by side. It would be similar to NOHUHU's picture above but maybe with 5-10 seals. If the Hobie stock # were given, we could make a choice.